Those beautiful people in Sweden are bucking the trend in the music industry, Sweden are one of the only countries to record a increase in music revenue, in fact figures from the record labels association IFPI Sweden show revenues rose 18% in the first nine months of this year, a significant reversal from seven consecutive years of decline. In April, Sweden upheld new anti piracy laws which saw sites such as Pirate Bay being blocked to users. Although Swedish ISP’s removed one of the major sources for illegal digital content, 80% of the growth in sales was recorded in the digital market, suggesting that consumers are turning towards purchasing behaviour.
The IFPI also flags up rising sales in South Korea, another country that recently introduced an anti-piracy law and where several legal services have launched. It says music sales there were up 18% in the first half of 2009 on a year ago.
The value of music does play on the conscious of illegal down-loaders who are now begining to find legal solutions to their consumption habits. Ludvig Werner, who chairs IFPI Sweden,said even if the new law had not changed people’s perceptions of whether copyright owners should be properly remunerated, it had changed their behaviour. A crackdown on illegal sites combined with the spread of legal sites supported by advertising had helped push consumers from one to the other
Interestingly, The European Parliament today approved a new telecoms reform package that offers greater protection for consumers, which threatens Eircom’s plan to ban internet subscribers who persistently download music illegally. Eircom agreed to introduce a “three strikes and you’re out” rule in January as a result of an out-of-court settlement with EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner Music.
This report has furthered heated the debate on the control ISPs should have regarding consumers usage rights. The quest for the Internet to remain open access is being head fronted in Europe by Sweden’s The Pirate party who are the founders of the Pirate Bay but now have a seat at the European parliament after being democratically elected in Sweden’s European Election in June. It can also be argued that bands have access to a wider audience through these file sharing sites that they may not through conventional methods.
In a recent article we mention one of the four possible growth areas for the music industry is the ability to bundle music with everything else. A relevant example here is the Danish music business proposing the plan to offer unlimited music downloads for a fixed ISP cost back in 2007. With IP laws bound to continue to cause controversy, and file sharing sites duplicating like tadpoles, the music offering is the core product and if this remains consistent we would not see a change in the piracy situation, however is the product and offering changes value placed on music could be reflected in the balance sheets.
Courtsy: The Guardian/Irish Times